Oldie but Goodie: Old Swatch Roundup

It's time for the next installment of the Old Swatch Roundup!  I've got a MILLION photos of gorgeous polishes that need to be reviewed, but I've taken so long to actually do anything with these photos that I don't remember anything about the actual polish!  D'oh!  My solution?  I'll just toss a bunch of older swatches into one post a month without an actual review!  By the way, I've been keeping notes on application for all of the recent swatches I've done to ensure that I don't forget when it's time for the review.  I can't let my laziness deter from proper reviews!  Ok, let's take a look!

Purchased By Me

Hot Look BMX Bandit topped with Lynnderella Forget You Not

OPI Suzi Skis the Pyrenees Suede

OPI Russian Navy Suede

Butter London Black Knight

Koh Cloudy

Candeo Spruce over Koh Cloudy

Essie She's Picture Perfect

China Glaze Crystal Ball

Dollish Three Best Friends that Anyone Could Have over Essie She's Picture Perfect

China Glaze Let's Do It in 3-D

Candeo Oceania

PHEW!  I've spent the past three weeks working on my blog sale, which I've finally put up!  You can check out my goods here.  I just typed "check out my goodies here," but decided that sounded a bit...  Wrong.  Anyway, I'd love for you guys to buy my stuff so I can purchase more polish-making supplies and a new polish desk for my new house!

I also decided that I was mad at my nails tonight and chopped them all off down to the meat.  There were two with really bad breaks and several others with severely weak spots, so I thought it would be a great idea to just chop them down to try and get rid of the weak spots.  I'm sure I haven't gotten rid of them all, but I think I got at least most of them.  But yeah, my nail meat is really sore.  As such, you won't be seeing my super-nubs very much until they grow out a little.  Luckily, I've been taking swatch shots like a fiend, so I've got tons of pics to tide me over.  I may take this opportunity to re-wear some of my favorite polishes that won't need to be photographed!

Anyway, tonight we're going to take a look at Candeo Oceania.

*I was not financially compensated for this post.  All items in this review were purchased by me for my own use.  The opinions are completely my own based on my experience.  For more information, please see my Disclosure Policy in the tab above.*

Color: Clear base with matte lavender, aqua, teal, and white hex glitters.  (Layered over OPI Parlez Vous OPI)

Finish: Glitter Top Coat – glitter in a clear base to be worn as a top coat.

Bottle / Brush: Round bottle brush – standard width and length.  Easy to control and manipulate.  Longer cap than normal polishes in the round bottle, making application easy.

Opacity: Glitter topcoat – not designed for full opacity.

Glitter Application: Hard – difficult to dig the glitters out of the bottle, spreads well with the dab method, but pools at the cuticles and bubbles when dry.

Consistency: Super thin – runny and floods the cuticles easily.  The base-to-glitter ratio is off.  You need to do two thin coats to achieve the look I have here.  Otherwise, the polish will bulge and run into your cuticles.

Overall Ease of Application: Difficult – applies with some pooling.  Spreads well with thin coats.

Stampability: Not designed for stamping.

Dry Time: Medium – dry to the touch with minimal smudging in 3-8 minutes.

Overall Thoughts: Oceania is a pretty glitter, but nothing too unique.  As I said above, the base-to-glitter ratio is more in favor of base than glitter.  Two thin coats will give you the same look as most glitters with one coat.  If you try to get all of the glitter you want on the brush, you'll end up with a bulge that dries leaning on one side of your nail, and that just isn't pretty.  Also, you'll run the risk of smudging because it takes so long to dry.  While I think this is a pretty polish, it just wasn't my thing.  I love glitters, but I prefer them to be in a colored base.  I'm not too picky if it's a creme or jelly, either, but I'm just not into glitter topcoats like I used to be.

You can purchase Candeo at their store and Llarowe.  Also, follow them on Facebook for news and updates.

Do you like glitter toppers?

Oldie but Goodie: In the beginning...

Tonight's post is going to be a little bit different as I'm not going to do a review.  Instead, I thought I'd show you guys my transformation as a swatcher, photographer, polisher, and blogger.  These photos are technically part of the Oldie but Goodie series I used to do, but I'm running low on pictures to dedicate a whole post to each polish.  Therefore, I've decided I would just put them all in one post!  Get ready for some heavy picture spam!

Here's a little bit of history to go with these old pictures.  I was always a polish fiend, but I strayed away when I went to law school.  I didn't have time to do them myself, and I certainly didn't have the money to spend on getting manicures.  When I was little, I would go over to my Grannie's house all the time, and every time, we would do our nails.  She had this amazing selection of all different colors mostly from Wet 'n Wild, but including Nina, Sinful, Revlon Street Wear, and some Sally Hansen.  We would always have festive manis (and pedis for me) during each holiday.  Those are times I sincerely cherish since my grandmother has since passed away.  She's who got me started on my road to polish ridiculousness when I was just a young girl.  Even through school, I always had a pretty decently sized stash for a teenager - especially for a teenager during the non-polish mania years.  My nails were horrible, though, and still are to a certain degree, because of all of all of my health issues (Hashimotos thyroid disease, hypoglycemia, and intolerance to several different foods that I didn't know about until recently).  I peeled them.  Not bit them, but peeled them off.  They flaked, they wouldn't grow, and I had ridges.  But I'll be damned if I didn't have paint on them all the time!  Now, I try to have polish on my nails every day.  I typically do a mani every or every other night unless I'm doing a wear test, simply because I went crazy buying last year and am still trying to catch up on wearing them all.  Still nowhere close, though.  Hah!

These photos are from around this time last year when I first started getting back into polish.  Some are before I started the blog and was posting photos on Facebook and another polish forum.  Some are from after I started the blog last summer but before I was very good about moisturizing or using my camera.  At the end, I'll add a photo from a few weeks ago so you can see how I've transformed through this process!  Let's get started!! 

Zoya Minka - hated this polish!  It went on horribly and just wouldn't dry.

Gelish French marble with Tiki Tiki Laranga, Shake it til You Samba,  Stand Out, and Light Elegant.  This photo is taken with the vivid color mode on my camera, but it's pretty close to accurate for the color on my tips.

Playing with my new stamps using regular polishes including NOPI, OPI, and WnW.

More stamping practice pre-cleanup.  I actually attempted a two-tone stamp that came out pretty decently!

Gelish Jet Set.  One of my all time favorite Gelish colors.  Also, one of the few polishes my hubby bought for me.

More stamping.  I'm unsure what the base is (maybe CC Puccilicious?) topped with NOPI Pink Flower Power.  I really like this combo.

Nails by Laura (now Joyful Noise Cosmetics) Bedazzleberry White.  The glitters in this one sank, but they were fine in the regular Beddazleberry.

OPI If you Moust you Moust topped with Dandy Nails Wonderwall.  Not a fantastic combo, but I wanted to give it a shot.  Wonderwall is a bit hard to apply, as you can tell, and the glitters didn't spread very well.  I'll bet it would look awesome over a pale blue like Elevation Alphubel.

Dollish Gym Tan Laundry.  I wasn't sure if I'd like this one when I bought it, but I really really love it.  Good impulse buy!

Rainbow Honey Celestia topped with Sonnetarium Snowfall.  I <3 Sonnetarium.  'Nuff said.

My first water marble.  Not exactly a rousing success, lol.

My second water marble attemp; OPI DS Sapphire topped with Dollish It's a me Mario, and Girly Bits Star Spangled.  There are so many things wrong with this picture...

Rainbow Hone Celestia.  I'm looking forward to trying this again once I've thinned it...

Dollish Sweet Dreams are Made of Glitter.  Mint greens aren't my fave.

Rainbow Honey Pinkie Promise.  Pretty color.  Wore this at Disney World.

Candeo Glacier.  Such a pretty color and the glitters haven't sunk or turned to sludge.  Yay!

Nails by Laura (now Joyful Noise Cosmetics) Alice Who?  Pretty close dupe to Absolutely Alice.

Pretty and Polished Cancer Moon.  Discontinued, but not really my kind of polish.

Wet 'n Wild Diamond in the Rough.  Very gritty, even with two coats of topcoat.

Pretty & Polished Peace Camp.  Applied easily without clumping or pooling.

OPI Thanks a Windmillion topped with China Glaze Fairy Dust and stamped with Nfu Oh 61.  One of my all time favorite manis despite the ridiculous SV shrinkage.

Now, let's take a look at a more recent shot: Zoya Pixie Dust Nyx.  I'll have a wear test of this beauty sometime in the near future!

So there you have it!  I think I've come a long way, and if I can do it, so can you!  Just keep moisturizing, figure out the best way for you to handle your cuticles (I love my SH Cuticle Remover Gel), and keep your nails at a manageable length, and you'll be good to go!

How did you get into nail polish?  What's your story?

Comparison Thursday: Fuchsia Glitters

Today's Comparison Thursday is a biiiiiiit of a stretch.  It was one of those things where I was sitting staring at my Hare Dog Day Dream mani and started wondering how close it was to Candeo Orchid and Elevation Pata Puffer.  Why not try it out and see?  Yeah, they're all totally different.  Each one is beautiful for different reasons.  I present to you: A-Not-Very-Good-Comparison Thursday: Fuchsia Glitters.

They each have a berry jelly base, but that's pretty much where the similarities end.  Pata Puffer has micro and medium fuchsia holographic hexes.  Dog Day Dream has red, purple, and fuchsia hexes and purple squares.  Orchid has silver holographic hexes in three sizes.

Here's what they look like with a little intentional blur to see the bling-factor.

Pata Puffer applies well, like almost all of the Elevation Polishes I've used so far.  Its holographic glitters are gorgeous, but tend to muddy up the base a little making it look cloudy.  It's not cloudy, though, just super saturated with micro glitters.  The larger hexes flash between fuchsia and purple depending on the light.  It's very flashy, and I really like it!  Sadly, it was a limited edition polish and is now discontinued.

Hare Dog Day Dream, like I posted on Monday, applies well and builds nicely.  It looks great over red, but I'm sure it would look pretty good over other bright shades.

My Candeo Orchid has sinking glitters.  It is irritating.  Apparently, this is a widespread problem with Orchid, which is totally weird!  Unfortunately, because the glitters sink, they are extremely difficult to get out of the damn bottle despite shaking and rolling until I was blue in the face.  They were also pretty hard to spread.

Honestly, you could probably get away with only having one of these, but I think that you could also get away with keeping all three.  If I had to give one away, it would probably be Orchid.  Which is your favorite?  You can purchase Candeo at their store and on Llarowe, and check out their Facebook page for updates.  You can purchase Elevation polish on her Big Cartel site and Etsy on the 7th and 22nd of each month.  [HOT TIP! Lulu still has some of her Kickin' it Ole School collection on both sites!  After this month, those guys are going back into retirement, so snag them now now now!]  Follow Lulu's blog for updates.  Lastly, you can purchase Hare on her Etsy store, Overall Beauty, and Llarowe.  Check out Nikole's Facebook page and blog for updates.

In other news, Nerd Lacquer is back!  Check out her post here for more info.  I hope she is able to get back on her feet with a positive support system soon.

Do you own any Nerds?